“Turkish telecom operators spend billions of dollars for
telecommunication equipment,” Yildirim said today at an
Istanbul conference where the agreement was signed. “We have to
cut that spending and get them to use locally made equipment
instead of imports.”

Turkey’s three mobile operators -- Turkcell Iletisim
Hizmetleri AS, Vodafone Group Plc and the Avea Iletisim
Hizmetleri AS unit of Turk Telekom -- bought equipment from
suppliers including Ericsson AB and Huawei Technologies Co. for
third-generation systems when they got government licenses in
2008. The three operators spent about 19.4 billion liras ($11
billion) on investments from 2008 to the end of September last
year, primarily for third-generation equipment, according to
telecom market regulator BTK.

The new system for civilian and military use will be
capable of delivering speeds of 100 megabits per second for
mobile and 1,000 Mbps for fixed-line telecommunication, Yildirim
said. Speeds for current third-generation mobile systems average
10 Mbps and can occasionally reach 40 Mbps, Ahmet Hamdi Atalay,
a member of the executive committee of Netas, said at the
conference.

Mobile Transmission

The Aselsan-led group will complete the development of the
system, also known as Long-Term Evolution, or LTE, by 2016 for
commercial use and 2017 for the military, the Ankara-based
company said in a filing with the Istanbul Stock Exchange. The
system includes development of software and building of base
stations for mobile transmission.

Aselsan shares rose as much as 6.4 percent in Istanbul and
were up 3.4 percent at 9.10 liras at 5:15 p.m., a record high.